Two songs on Sasami Ashworth’s new pop-music album heavily feature French horn. Nothing surprising for a classically trained musician who studied the instrument at Eastman School of Music.
But the artist, who releases music under her first name, embraced indie rock and other popular styles instead of entering the classical realm after she returned home to Los Angeles in 2012.
“When I graduated from Eastman, I was really burned out on classical music,” Ashworth said. “I was much more interested in post-punk and garage rock, or whatever the heck was happening in L.A. at the time.”
She soon found her voice. Since 2019, she’s released two albums of vastly different music, one dreamy and one heavy. Her third, “Blood on the Silver Screen,” out Mar. 8 via London’s storied indie label Domino, swings another direction: toward mainstream pop.
Or, on two tracks, a pop of brass.
“Nothing But a Sad Face” and its preceding interlude mark Ashworth’s return to the French horn and thus, a return to her Rochester roots. The journey to reclaiming her instrument is complete.
“If I play French horn live on stage and I mess up notes, that would have totally wrecked me when I was in college,” Ashworth said. “Now I’m much more trying to bring the punk, rock and roll ethos of the other music I play into my French horn playing and not be so hard on myself.”
Ashworth’s musical education on Gibbs Street was twofold. She spent six hours a day practicing classical compositions, both contemporary and hundred of years old. Then she’d clock in for her shift at Java’s and become immersed in indie groups like Dirty Projectors blaring over the cafe’s speakers.
The duality helped expand her palette, as did collaborations with friends like Ian Proper, formerly of the local band Sports, who called her “an inspiring figure in my life.”
“I remember her wanting me to play a benefit concert wherein I would be backed by classical musicians from Eastman,” he recalled. “This wasn’t the kind of thing I would usually feel comfortable doing, but her confidence is contagious, and now it’s a nice memory.”
Meanwhile, a Jazz 101 course at Eastman freed Ashworth to start improvising.
“It just completely lit a fire inside of my brain,” Ashworth said. “I had been playing all this classical music where you just read what’s on the page, but I’d never been required to make up my own sentences, to write my own poetry. Early on at Eastman, I knew that there was something beyond just classical performance for me.”
She explored further, leaning on synthesizers and guitar textures for her 2019 debut album. By 2022, Ashworth had pivoted again to heavy sounds inspired by metal and “my own kind of need for cathartic, raging music.” The end result was the album “Squeeze,” which she’s likened to a haunted house due to its unexpected pivots.
“Blood on the Silver Screen,” by contrast, is definitively a pop record. But for Ashworth, making a pop record is a very punk thing to do.
“It kind of pisses me off that being a POC woman, I have to always be cool and interesting and innovative, and god forbid I just make something for fun,” she said. “The punkest thing that I could do is whatever the fuck I want, even if it means making something that’s kind of cheesy or painfully earnest or a little bit saccharine.”
To help fulfill the sonic vision of the new tunes she wrote, Ashworth teamed up with producer Jennifer Decilveo, a Grammy-winning studio maven for Miley Cyrus, Hozier and Andra Day. The propulsive gloss of songs like “Honeycrash” and the horn showcase “Nothing But a Sad Face” comes from their partnership in the studio.
“Every single song, it was her vision,” Decilveo said. “I felt more like a shepherd. She’s classically trained and a wizard at every single instrument. It’s almost like she gives me the coloring book and then I go color.”
There’s also the color of the wavy designs on the walls at the Bug Jar here in Rochester, of which Ashworth spoke fondly. She makes a point to swing through while on tour even without a scheduled gig. She mentioned one such side quest to get local apple cider donuts while in transit recently between Montreal and Boston.
“I feel very connected to Rochester,” Ashworth said. “It really feels like my second home.”
Patrick Hosken is CITY’s arts reporter. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
